Categories

General Disclaimer

There are some links to Amazon on this website. If you click one and buy something, I might make a little bit of money. I don't get any books or anything for free. Except for the books I check out of my local library. Libraries rock!

Watch the trailer for American Crime Story: The Murder of Gianni Versace. I am not, repeat, NOT a true crime fan. But I remember the day this murder was reported so very distinctly, and it came during 1997, which is the year that defined the next section of my life… It was weird and memorable and I can still hear the person who told me about it pronouncing his name “Johnny” because “the i softens the g in Italian, it doesn’t get pronounced on its own.” She was Canadian and a hoot and I wish I could remember her name.

On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality. “Our bland, featureless Midwest—on some level, it is a fantasy. The easiest, most tempting tack for a cultural critic to take with fantasies is to condemn them. Given what ideas of normalness, in particular, have done to this country, to its nonwhite, nonstraight, non–middle-class, nonmale—and also to those who are all of those things, and are driven slightly or fully crazy by the effort to live up to the norm that is their birthright—it is tempting simply to try to fumigate the myth away.” (The Midwest, by the way isn’t flat. The Plains states are flat. The Midwest has hills and forests and lakes – some of them Great – but it isn’t flat.)

Something is wrong on the internet. I only made it partway through the underlying article which details how automation and showing people content like what they’ve consumed before may constitute abuse (which maybe falls into the “way harsh Tai” category). It’s interesting to think about though. Please kids, remember to curate your own media consumption and do read people you disagree with sometimes.

In the first paragraph of Astrology Is Fake But Scorpios Are Extremely True it says: “If you are a Scorpio and you are reading this, stop. You are smiling in a way I don’t appreciate.” Reader, I was smiling. And may have laughed out loud in the middle of the coffeeshop. (Let me confirm. I’m a scorpio.)

The Awful Decline of the New York City Subway System. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we were in NYC last week (my first time! it was awesome!). Having nothing to compare it against, the subways seemed great – they’re still way better than the Bay Area’s public transportation – and having read a number of these “the sky is falling” articles, I expected it to be much worse. That said: maintenance is important and it shouldn’t suck for everyone before it gets fixed.